Can you believe that it’s been 5 years since Guitarley’s opened it’s doors!? I can! It’s been a wonderful adventure and the shop has grown immensely. Starting as just a small repair shop with a small work bench, a few guitar hangers, and an amp or two, I now have a custom wood shop and repair/show room, that is packed full of guitars, projects, and woods! I have worked on thousands of guitars and built several customs, with many more in the works. It’s hard to believe sometimes.

Guitarley’s has recently been chosen to design and build 12 custom guitars for Geisinser Health Systems! 12 guitars! Get ready to see some serious building this spring.

I’ll also be hosting an open house to celebrate the 5 years of business! Please plan to attend on Saturday, April 2, from 4-7pm! Come see the guitars that have been built, custom amps, woods, tools, and me!

It has been way too long since my last post! However, my negligence has been due to a very happily busy repair shop and constant developments in my lutherie and musical business! Life has been good to this “lucky luthier” and “guitar man”! My latest adventure this week was big league for sure…

I recently participated in the 2013 machine Expo at Hermance Machine Company (www.hermance.com). What a cool look into the world of production level woodworking this was! Every year major companies set up product and demonstration booths throughout the facility and show off their tools and what they can do. I was selected to join forces with C.R. Onsrud (www.cronsrud.com) who specialize in high quality CNC (computer numerical control) machinery designed for the aerospace, woodworking, plastics, and composites industries.

With a CAD (computer-aided design) program, we created a three-dimensional geometry of my resonator guitar to guide a very large CNC machine being shown at the expo. This machine cut out one of my guitar bodies, beautifully, in a matter of minutes! As a small luthier with smaller machines and hand tools, this was impressive and inspired possibilities of larger production in the future. It would have taken me a few hours instead of a few minutes.

For the immediate future, this particular machine has provided two mostly cut resonator bodies to be the first of guitars that will be built in my shop in Williamsport, PA. This is very exciting and motivational as I become one step closer to completing my wood shop and beginning the next step in my adventures in lutherie and music. Check out my photo album on Facebook by clicking this link, and be sure to ‘like’ and follow my page- http://on.fb.me/13OPbTL

Does everyone know what First Friday of April is!? Friday April 5th marks the 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of Guitarley’s!!! I can’t believe how time has passed and I want to celebrate with an open house! I’m still working out all the details for what all I’ll be doing, but please plan to stop by and let’s hope for a beautiful spring day!

I’m hoping to at least have the whole place all spruced up, put together a slide show of my southwest tour and/or shop photos, have custom guitars on display, and more! This is also a great opportunity to grab my new cd “Karma”, if you haven’t done so already!

Hope to see you for First Friday celebration, in downtown Williamsport! Thanks!